Got my first 45

[Jules]

Purchased a new Glock 30sf from The Arms Room for my birthday. I also picked up a 3.5# connector and the extended slide release. I ended up going back two days later and getting Mepro night sights. My Mtac came in, and I've been carrying the setup with Speer Gold Dots for about two weeks now. I have put 200 rounds down the pipe and I loved every one of them. I really like the way the 30 shoots over my previous ccw g27. The 30 has a much smoother recoil and is easier for me to hold. Everyone cross their fingers that the wife will let me get a Raptor II for Christmas.

[USA1]

Sweet! Everyone should own at least one .45...even if it's a Glock.

...*fingers crossed for the Kimber*

[cougartex]

Congratulations. Safe shooting.

[The Annoyed Man]

The 30 has a much smoother recoil and is easier for me to hold.

That smoother recoil is the .45 talking. It's a big pussycat. It's been my experience that when I teach people to shoot, even though I start them out on .22 and work them up to .45, they are always surprised at how much easier it is to shoot .45 than shooting 9mm or .40 cal - both of which tend to have a much sharper recoil impulse than does the .45.

[sugar land dave]

The 30 has a much smoother recoil and is easier for me to hold.

That smoother recoil is the .45 talking. It's a big pussycat. It's been my experience that when I teach people to shoot, even though I start them out on .22 and work them up to .45, they are always surprised at how much easier it is to shoot .45 than shooting 9mm or .40 cal - both of which tend to have a much sharper recoil impulse than does the .45.

As a long-time P-95DC owner, I recently acquired a Rock Island 1911 hi-cap. After shooting that I have to agree with your post. Very surprising. Pleasantly so.

[skullface1313]

Congrats! I love my glock 30 with stainless steal guide rod and hogue rubber grip sleeve. I'm hoping to add a kimber super carry ultra hd as another carry choice. I like kimbers and glocks so I guess I'm weird.

[CC Italian]

TAM is right. I know so many people who didn't buy a .45 acp because it was just to powerful and had to much recoil, they never even tried one. Of course the more you practice with a certain caliber and handgun the less you think about recoil. I have a G27 and the first time I shot it 4 years back I thought I would never be able to handle it. Same went for my Glock 20 but now I have learned how to grip the weapon with both hands properly and shoot it better then my brothers Glock 17. Practice, Practice, Practice! I think that many first time handgun owners would buy 9mm and .45acp in semi-auto if they shot them back to back. I own all the calibers mentioned plus a few in wheelguns. I have had several friends go with me to the range who had little or no experience with handguns. All preferred the 9mm or .45acp over the .40 S&W and 10mm. In fact my friend who shot a Colt .45acp prior to going to the range with me demanded that I bring the 10mm to the range even though I knew he would not like it. After a 10 round mag he put it down and shot the .45acp the rest of the time. It is hard to argue against a .45 caliber bullet with 230 grains and manageable recoil.

[threoh8]

Back in college, I took a marksmanship class. I was already on the varsity rifle team and in ROTC, so I spent the class helping the other students.
One day, we were shooting .45's at the local Air Force base (those were the days!). One girl was having a very hard time. She had done well with the pellet pistols and .22 target pistols on the school range. She was afraid of the M1911's reputation for recoil, and could not control it. The first shot caused her to stagger back, and nearly hit herself with the pistol. She was about 6', and I'd guess 250 lbs. We stopped her, calmed her down, reemphasized the basics, and asked if she wanted to try again. Fear got to her, and she did not finish the magazine.
Just down the line from her was a thin girl who was barely 5'. The pistol was big for her hands, but she just rode the recoil, controlled the pistol, came back on target, and lined up for another shot.
Attitude made all the difference.

[The Annoyed Man]

TAM is right. I know so many people who didn't buy a .45 acp because it was just to powerful and had to much recoil, they never even tried one. Of course the more you practice with a certain caliber and handgun the less you think about recoil. I have a G27 and the first time I shot it 4 years back I thought I would never be able to handle it. Same went for my Glock 20 but now I have learned how to grip the weapon with both hands properly and shoot it better then my brothers Glock 17. Practice, Practice, Practice! I think that many first time handgun owners would buy 9mm and .45acp in semi-auto if they shot them back to back. I own all the calibers mentioned plus a few in wheelguns. I have had several friends go with me to the range who had little or no experience with handguns. All preferred the 9mm or .45acp over the .40 S&W and 10mm. In fact my friend who shot a Colt .45acp prior to going to the range with me demanded that I bring the 10mm to the range even though I knew he would not like it. After a 10 round mag he put it down and shot the .45acp the rest of the time. It is hard to argue against a .45 caliber bullet with 230 grains and manageable recoil.

Curiously, I've only ever fired a 10mm one time, shooting Marty's handloads, and it was not at all hard to shoot. But for a couple of years, I owned a H&K USP Compact in .40 S&W, and it only ever got comfortable with shooting it just before I finally sold it. It had all the snap of a 9mm, with the heavier bullet weights approaching .45 territory. I typically shot and carried 180 grain loads in it because that was what was commercially available most of the time. I once shot a box of 165 grainers through it, and it was much more pleasant, but by then I had made the decision to simplify my ammo purchasing/storing picture and replace it with polymer framed double stack .45... ....which I did when I bought my M&P 45.

My wife has a Glock 19, and while the gun is a little bit of a snappy shooter, the bullet weights are light enough that they're not unpleasant to shoot. But I find that for inexperienced shooters, when they have the chance to compare the snappiness of the 9mm to the "big push" of the .45, they are very surprised to find that it is such a user-friendly caliber despite its fearsome reputation.

Attitude made all the difference.

There it is. Nervous Nellies are going to continue to find a bull-barreled .22 LR pistol (with very little discernable recoil, near as I can tell) to be intimidating, while those who adapt to circumstances more easily are going to find the .45 to be a "big pussycat" as I called it earlier.

[CC Italian]

TAM. The 10mm is not bad in recoil in a full sized gun like my Glock 20. The 29 is a tad bit more but not much. With 180 grain Federal American Eagles the 20 is easy to shoot and is easier to shoot then my father's Glock 22 with 180 grain Federal American Eagles. This is because the Glock 20 weighs at least 5 ounces more then the 22, both have 15 round mags.

My Glock 27 has a good amount of recoil but it is easy to keep on target. The Glock 20 when loaded with 180-230 grain hot loads from Buffalo Bore or Double Tap has more recoil then my friends Glock 21 loaded with .45acp +P.

We did a comparison and the bottom line is that the only two areas where a 10mm really beats a .45acp is in penetration and shooting distances past 50 yards. We were hitting 16 inch pistol targets on every shot at a rifle range resting on bags, grouping was horrible but there is definitely less bullet drop with the 10mm. I am sure there are guys who can do this easily with a .45 but we were not one of them. We could hit the target but not with any great accuracy or frequency. I know this was a silly test at 50 and 100 yards and that is a job for a rifle but this was just informal testing for fun.

Otherwise the .45acp was easier to control, get back on target and our grouping was not only a little closer at distances out to 25 yards but we could shoot 13 shots faster from the 21 then the 20 with a few seconds to spare. (13 round mag in a Glock 21) Makes me wish I bought a Glock 21 and converted it to 10mm. Can't do that with a 20. Long live the .45!

[CC Italian]

Long story short the .45 is better suited for personal defense!

[michael e]

I thought the moral of story was is Glocks are the best. ( I just picked up my 19th glock this morning)

[The Annoyed Man]

I thought the moral of story was is Glocks are the best. ( I just picked up my 19th glock this morning)

You sir, have a disorder or a fetish or something! Kinda adds new meaning to "Glock 19."

[michael e]

Yea i do. But i admit it. But i do not seek help for it either. If it makes the 1911 guys happy I owe 4 and my next two purches will be a two tone 1911 and a 10mm one . For the op the glock 30 is great if it fits your hand. I carry the 29 which is same as 30 in size and agree if fits alot better that the 27 for me